Dec 14, 2023·edited Dec 14, 2023Liked by Chris Schulz
In the spirit of sharing new things to discover, I thought I'd share my favourite AND my favourite I haven't seen on any lists (yet). Here we go:
The best film was … Barbie, and my favourite movie I haven't seen on any lists was either Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves or BS High (Neon).
The best TV show was … Silo (Apple+), and my favourite show I haven't seen on any lists was The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Netflix).
The best album was … Sleep Token's Take Me Back To Eden, and my favourite albums I haven't seen on any lists were Young Fathers' Heavy Heavy and Crosses' Goodnight, God Bless, I Love You, Delete.
The best song was … Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire, and my favourite song I have't seen on any lists is TesseracT's Legion.
The best live show was … n/a (I haven't been to a live show since pre-COVID).
The best podcast was … Search Engine, and my favourite podcast I haven't seen on any lists is The Debutante by Jon Ronson, which is a podcast in format but more like an audiobook.
The single thing that made me happiest was … honestly, my son won a community trust award for environmentalism and it was the most proud I've felt in a long time.
BONUS
The best book I read was either Nicolas Binge's Ascension, RF Kuang's Yellowface, or Maureen Ryan's Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood.
The best film was … Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. Innovative, exciting, emotional. Bloody good.
The best TV show was … Shrinking (Apple TV+) Sadness, empathy, laughter, kindness. Bloody good
The best song was … anything by Don McGlashan. Always, always bloody good
The best live show was … Racing: Must Be The Moon tour @ The Yard in Raglan. Small venue, big sound, good friends. Bloody good
The best podcast was … The West Wing Weekly (revisiting) Hopeful, naive while still being prescient, insightful, entertaining. Bloody good.
The single thing that made me happiest was … Swimming in the ocean while eating cheese and drinking a local Pinot Gris as good music plays on a decent sound system while the sun beats down. That's one bloody good thing, right?
The best film was … Taylor Swift concert - I went with my 10 year old and we had a blast.
The best TV show was … The Bear - such a great show.
The best album was … The Codefendants 'This is a crime wave'. NoFXs Fat Mike comes together with some legends of punk and hip hop to make an album sort of like Blackroc - but better because The Black Keys aren't involved.
The best song was … Rumble - Skrillix and Fred Again. This was the song that introduced my kids into electronic music - and we haven't looked back.
The best live show was … Lagwagon, San Fran Bathhouse, Wellington. Such an amazing band. Danced for hours.
The best podcast was … Pablo Torre Finds Out. Sports and weird shit, from the legend that is sports journo and former ESPN host, Pablo Torre. Not your typicL sports podcast.
The single thing that made me happiest was … discovering Troy Kingi again. Holy shit he's great.
I loved that episode of The Last of Us so much I watched it three times! Just beautiful. And Demons was a fantastic album - I hope Doja comes here soon. That would be amazing to see live...
Still working on my personal best of. A fast creature I am not.
But I did some homework last night - rented and watch Past Lives.
It was on my mind, your commendation provided the final shove.
For me film is all about the light - not quite film noir but I definitely prefer monochromatic to a cacophony of shouty colours.
And sound - unless a film is built around a specific collection - when I think of the film About A Boy I immediately hear Badly Drawn Boy - who I've never actually listened to - but their music is a character in the film (I think that's the trade terminology) that I understand.
But outside of this "character" style of film soundtrack, I'm just confused by the constant swell of music competing with dialogue and fishing for emotion. I can't appreciate it anymore than I can appreciate what I would describe as hyper-real looking, overlit films where you can see every pore on every actors face over the age of 20. There's too much information, there's no escapism, no feeling of audience as voyeur - in the non-pervy meaning the word.
When the film characters feel like they are litterally in the room with you and competing for your attention - I dislike that feeling immensely, especially when no amount of adjusting the sound output makes it any easier to distinguish dialogue from extraneous noise.
I much prefer a quieter study of the human condition. That's where the magic is for me.
It's all in the faces for me and the way they look at each other: he reads completely devoted and all 'would jump off a cliff if she told me to'; she's so happy around him and clearly loves his company but has just a hint of the big sister about her. I dunno. I think about that film often and I've seen it three times. Think I'm still figuring it out. Glad you enjoyed it Sarah!
In the spirit of sharing new things to discover, I thought I'd share my favourite AND my favourite I haven't seen on any lists (yet). Here we go:
The best film was … Barbie, and my favourite movie I haven't seen on any lists was either Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves or BS High (Neon).
The best TV show was … Silo (Apple+), and my favourite show I haven't seen on any lists was The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Netflix).
The best album was … Sleep Token's Take Me Back To Eden, and my favourite albums I haven't seen on any lists were Young Fathers' Heavy Heavy and Crosses' Goodnight, God Bless, I Love You, Delete.
The best song was … Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire, and my favourite song I have't seen on any lists is TesseracT's Legion.
The best live show was … n/a (I haven't been to a live show since pre-COVID).
The best podcast was … Search Engine, and my favourite podcast I haven't seen on any lists is The Debutante by Jon Ronson, which is a podcast in format but more like an audiobook.
The single thing that made me happiest was … honestly, my son won a community trust award for environmentalism and it was the most proud I've felt in a long time.
BONUS
The best book I read was either Nicolas Binge's Ascension, RF Kuang's Yellowface, or Maureen Ryan's Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood.
Young Fathers has not been on enough lists Chris! Love that band and desperate to see them live. When will they come here?
The best film was … Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. Innovative, exciting, emotional. Bloody good.
The best TV show was … Shrinking (Apple TV+) Sadness, empathy, laughter, kindness. Bloody good
The best song was … anything by Don McGlashan. Always, always bloody good
The best live show was … Racing: Must Be The Moon tour @ The Yard in Raglan. Small venue, big sound, good friends. Bloody good
The best podcast was … The West Wing Weekly (revisiting) Hopeful, naive while still being prescient, insightful, entertaining. Bloody good.
The single thing that made me happiest was … Swimming in the ocean while eating cheese and drinking a local Pinot Gris as good music plays on a decent sound system while the sun beats down. That's one bloody good thing, right?
I did it!
https://georgedhenderson.substack.com/p/best-of-the-year-2023
But I'll also do a different set in your fun version
The best film (that wasn't King Loser) that I saw in 2023 was Pearl (and Mia Goth is best actress)
The best TV show (that wasn't White Lotus 2) was I Hate Suzie, which did everything the Barbie movie thought it could do but didn't really
The best album (that wasn't Zheani's The Spriritual Meat Grinder) was i.e. craxy's Country Justice
The best song (that wasn't That's Hot by Zheani) was Co-star by Amaarae
The best live show (that wasn't Lana Del Rey at Glastonbury) was Venom Dolls at the New Lynn Community Centre
The best podcast was …Red Scare
The single thing that made me happiest was …releasing the INVOCATION video
Best Film - Riceboy Sleeps - AMAZING (and pipped Past Lives) - saw at NZIFF
Best TV Show - After the Party shares top slot with The Bear
Best Album - Ideal Home Noise - Vera Ellen
Best song - Amanda Palmer - "Little Island" with Julia Deans - makes me teary!
Best new band I discovered this year - Girl& Girl from Brisbane - amazing at Others Way
podcast - listening to Kim Hill interviews that I missed :-)
Best books would be a great addition - I read lots but can't pick just one
Things that made me happiest - lots of gigs I went to this year, especially local acts, we are blessed!
The best film was … Taylor Swift concert - I went with my 10 year old and we had a blast.
The best TV show was … The Bear - such a great show.
The best album was … The Codefendants 'This is a crime wave'. NoFXs Fat Mike comes together with some legends of punk and hip hop to make an album sort of like Blackroc - but better because The Black Keys aren't involved.
The best song was … Rumble - Skrillix and Fred Again. This was the song that introduced my kids into electronic music - and we haven't looked back.
The best live show was … Lagwagon, San Fran Bathhouse, Wellington. Such an amazing band. Danced for hours.
The best podcast was … Pablo Torre Finds Out. Sports and weird shit, from the legend that is sports journo and former ESPN host, Pablo Torre. Not your typicL sports podcast.
The single thing that made me happiest was … discovering Troy Kingi again. Holy shit he's great.
I am going to check out the Codefendants asap - and Troy Kingi eh? What a dude.
The best film was …
Women Talking (but I haven’t seen Past Lives yet)
The best TV show was …
Slow Horses S2-3. Again.
The best album was …
Christoph El Truento- Circle of Friends
The best song was …
Astral Plane- Say She She
The best live show was … too hard. Tami Neilson’s Rock’n’Roll Review and Troy King and the APO.
The best podcast was …
Tim Harford’s Cautionary Tales. 3rd year running.
The single thing that made me happiest was …
Baked Parmesan Cheescake at Bosco de Lobos in Madrid
Baked parmesan cheesecake?!?
Think Basque cheescake but made with Parmesan. Best thing I've ever put in my mouth...
I love this Chris!
Here’s mine:
The best film was … I hate how basic I am but Barbie
The best TV show was … The Last Of Us - specifically episode 3 IYKYK
The best album was …Olivia Dean - Messy, Bakar - Halo, LEISURE- Leisurevision
The best song was … Demons - Doja Cat (aggressive but the bars the girl spits are *chefs kiss*)
The best live show was … Luke Combs at Spark Arena - just good ol’ rooting tooting fun with a (surprisingly) incredibly diverse audience. The best!
The best podcast was … The Fold with Duncan Grieves (how I found myself here!) and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd
The single thing that made me happiest was … The new Zelda game released on Nintendo Switch after a long 6 year wait <3
I loved that episode of The Last of Us so much I watched it three times! Just beautiful. And Demons was a fantastic album - I hope Doja comes here soon. That would be amazing to see live...
Love this, Chris.
You've taken my head out of depressing "what on earth is this government thinking 🫣" thoughts.
I'll get to work on my list...after work, but will spend the day happily distracted 📼.
Ngā mihi.
Looking forward to reading it Sarah - and glad I can help.
The same thoughts are consuming me currently too :)
Still working on my personal best of. A fast creature I am not.
But I did some homework last night - rented and watch Past Lives.
It was on my mind, your commendation provided the final shove.
For me film is all about the light - not quite film noir but I definitely prefer monochromatic to a cacophony of shouty colours.
And sound - unless a film is built around a specific collection - when I think of the film About A Boy I immediately hear Badly Drawn Boy - who I've never actually listened to - but their music is a character in the film (I think that's the trade terminology) that I understand.
But outside of this "character" style of film soundtrack, I'm just confused by the constant swell of music competing with dialogue and fishing for emotion. I can't appreciate it anymore than I can appreciate what I would describe as hyper-real looking, overlit films where you can see every pore on every actors face over the age of 20. There's too much information, there's no escapism, no feeling of audience as voyeur - in the non-pervy meaning the word.
When the film characters feel like they are litterally in the room with you and competing for your attention - I dislike that feeling immensely, especially when no amount of adjusting the sound output makes it any easier to distinguish dialogue from extraneous noise.
I much prefer a quieter study of the human condition. That's where the magic is for me.
Past Lives delivered that. I loved it.
It's all in the faces for me and the way they look at each other: he reads completely devoted and all 'would jump off a cliff if she told me to'; she's so happy around him and clearly loves his company but has just a hint of the big sister about her. I dunno. I think about that film often and I've seen it three times. Think I'm still figuring it out. Glad you enjoyed it Sarah!
Absolutely the faces.
The best film was … Barbie
The best TV show was …
The best album was … Goodnight Summerland - Helena Deland
The best song was … Way to Say Goodbye - Aoife Nessa Frances
The best live show was … I.V.Y supporting Marlins Dreaming at Dive, Ōtepoti
The best podcast was … The Good Sex Project - Melody Thomas
The single thing that made me happiest was … patting dogs :)